Harris County Public Library - beatle haircutshttp://www.hcpl.net/taxonomy/term/1843/0
enIs Rap Poetry? http://www.hcpl.net/content/rap-poetry
<p>In <a href="http://www.hcpl.net/content/songwriters-vs-poets-battle-royale-or-long-simmering-grievance-aired-no-good-effect">an earlier post</a> I argued--not altogether convincingly even to myself--that songwriters should not be<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/houseofsims/"><img hspace="5" alt="Vintage Typewriter by House of Sims / Brandi Sims" align="left" width="156" height="114" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3165/2663206500_400b584385.jpg" /></a> considered &quot;poets.&quot; Basically, I said it is an <a href="http://catalog.hcpl.net/ipac20/ipac.jsp?menu=search&amp;aspect=subtab13&amp;term=catch%20phrases%20cliches%20idioms&amp;index=.GH#focus">apples to oranges comparison</a>--each genre's aims and tools are so different as to be nearly unrelated.</p>
<p><strong>A Glaring Omission</strong>: Though no one felt the need to comment. I'm sure that many of you noticed I didn't mention rap in the discussion. Despite the lack of outcry, I've been feeling guilty about not addressing the genre.</p>
<p>By way of explanation for the omission, my exposure to rap is limited to the <a href="http://catalog.hcpl.net/ipac20/ipac.jsp?menu=search&amp;aspect=subtab13&amp;term=american%20hegemony&amp;index=.GH">Disney-fied</a> stuff my daughter occasionally listens to, and the jagged shards of it I hear at stoplights pumped out of refrigerator-sized <a href="http://catalog.hcpl.net/ipac20/ipac.jsp?menu=search&amp;aspect=subtab13&amp;term=car%20stereo&amp;index=.GH">woofers</a> at kidney-jellying decibels. This is, I concede, a meager and probably <a href="http://catalog.hcpl.net/ipac20/ipac.jsp?menu=search&amp;aspect=subtab13&amp;term=dictionary%20of%20polling&amp;index=.GH">skewed sample</a> and not representative of the diversity of styles out there, but as regular readers know I rarely let <a href="http://darwin awards">ignorance</a> of a subject slow me down much.</p>
<p>My musical tastes were pretty well formed, if not fossilized, by the time rap as we know it came along. As a result, it continues to sound vaguely foreign to me, the way that <a href="http://catalog.hcpl.net/ipac20/ipac.jsp?menu=search&amp;aspect=subtab13&amp;term=gregorian%20chant&amp;index=.GH#focus">Gregorian chants</a> and <a href="http://catalog.hcpl.net/ipac20/ipac.jsp?menu=search&amp;aspect=subtab13&amp;term=ragas&amp;index=.GH">Ragas</a>, sound foreign to me. It is as if it were a different language. I perceive the patterns and get whisps of its beauty, but it just doesn't&nbsp;get in&nbsp;my blood the way three chords and a cloud of dust do.</p>
<p>I will try to avoid the usual hand-wringing, head-clutching <a href="http://catalog.hcpl.net/ipac20/ipac.jsp?menu=search&amp;aspect=subtab13&amp;term=tipper%20gore%20activist&amp;index=.GH">hysterics</a> that rap seems to engender in some, and which to my mind are only variations on those aimed against every expression of <a href="http://catalog.hcpl.net/ipac20/ipac.jsp?menu=search&amp;aspect=subtab13&amp;term=youth%20culture&amp;index=.GH"><img hspace="5" alt="Cover Art: The Zoot-Suit Riots: The Psychology of Symbolic Annihilation by Mauricio Mazon" align="right" width="128" height="183" src="http://www.syndetics.com/index.aspx?type=xw12&amp;isbn=9780292798038/LC.GIF&amp;client=harrisp&amp;upc=%2&amp;oclc=" />youth culture</a> in history from the <a href="http://catalog.hcpl.net/ipac20/ipac.jsp?menu=search&amp;aspect=subtab13&amp;term=foxtrot%20ballroom&amp;index=.GH">foxtrot</a> to <a href="http://catalog.hcpl.net/ipac20/ipac.jsp?menu=search&amp;aspect=subtab13&amp;term=Mauricio%20Mazon.%20zoot-suit%20riots&amp;index=.GH">zoot suits</a> to <a href="http://catalog.hcpl.net/ipac20/ipac.jsp?menu=search&amp;aspect=subtab13&amp;term=Fashions%20of%20a%20decade.%20The%201960s%20Yvonne%20Connikie.&amp;index=.GH">Beatle haircuts</a>. The fact that <a href="http://catalog.hcpl.net/ipac20/ipac.jsp?menu=search&amp;aspect=subtab13&amp;term=violence%20against%20women&amp;index=.GH">misogynism</a> and <a href="http://catalog.hcpl.net/ipac20/ipac.jsp?menu=search&amp;aspect=subtab13&amp;term=Being%20America%20:%20liberty,%20commerce,%20and%20violence%20in%20an%20American%20world&amp;index=.GH">glorification of violence</a> is present in rap cannot be denied, but I will not pretend rap is the only form of expression that <a href="http://catalog.hcpl.net/ipac20/ipac.jsp?menu=search&amp;aspect=subtab13&amp;term%3=culture%20shock%20pbs&amp;index=.GH">exhibits these traits</a>. The heaping helpings of self-aggrandizing, chest-thumping that is a hallmark of the genre and which I find a bit boring is a venerable tradition (see <a href="http://catalog.hcpl.net/ipac20/ipac.jsp?menu=search&amp;aspect=subtab13&amp;term=beowulf%20seamus%20heaney&amp;index=.GH"><strong>Beowulf</strong></a> and the &quot;Child of Calamity&quot; passage from <a href="http://catalog.hcpl.net/ipac20/ipac.jsp?menu=search&amp;aspect=subtab13&amp;term=huckleberry%20finn%20mark%20twain&amp;index=.TH"><strong>The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn</strong></a>), and when done with wit, it is wildly invigorating.</p>
<p><strong><img hspace="5" alt="Cover Art: Bum Rush the Page" align="left" width="114" height="172" src="http://www.syndetics.com/index.aspx?type=xw12&amp;isbn=9780609808405/LC.GIF&amp;client=harrisp&amp;upc=&amp;oclc=" />Let Your Voice Be Heard</strong><br />
Because of rap's spoken delivery and it's <a href="http://catalog.hcpl.net/ipac20/ipac.jsp?menu=search&amp;aspect=subtab13&amp;term=rhyming%20dictionary&amp;index=.GH">rhyme-heavy</a> focus, many will take it as given that rap is a form of popular poetry, though I'm not sure it is as simple as that, but I would like your opinion on the subject. More importantly, I would like your&nbsp;suggestions for the most poetic and innovative rappers. If Harris County Public Library has them in its collection, I will link them to the catalog. If not, your opinions and suggestions will be read by countless thousands...okay, countless tens of readers.</p>
<p>Below are two interesting items from HCPL's collection. Please, send your opinions and suggestions using the comment feature. Thanks.</p>
<p><a href="http://catalog.hcpl.net/ipac20/ipac.jsp?menu=search&amp;aspect=subtab13&amp;term=Russell%20Simmons\%27%20Def%20Poetry%20Jam%20on%20Broadway:%20The%20Choice%20Collection&amp;index=.GH"><strong>Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam on Broadway: The Choice Collection</strong></a> / edited by Danny Simmons<br />
<a href="http://catalog.hcpl.net/ipac20/ipac.jsp?menu=search&amp;aspect=subtab13&amp;term=bum%20rush%20the%20page&amp;index=.GH"><strong>Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam</strong></a> / edited by Tony Medina and Louis Reyes Rivera. <br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p>Photo Credit: Vintage Typewriter by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/houseofsims/">House of Sims</a>/Brandi Sims<br />
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<script type='text/javascript'>stLight.options({publisher:''});</script>http://www.hcpl.net/content/rap-poetry#commentsbeatle haircutsfoxtrotmisogynismPoetryrapViolencezoot-suitsWed, 13 Jan 2010 14:10:57 +0000David Cherry3118 at http://www.hcpl.net